Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche

Nueva Germania

Förster planned to create a "pure" Aryan settlement in the New World, and had found a site in Paraguay which he thought would be suitable. The couple persuaded 14 German families to join them in the colony, to be called Nueva Germania, and the group left Germany for South America on February 15, 1887.
The colony did not thrive. The land was not suitable for German methods of farming, illness ran rampant, and transportation to the colony was slow and difficult. Faced with mounting debts, Förster committed suicide by poisoning himself on June 3, 1889. Four years later his widow left the colony forever and returned to Germany. The colony still exists as part of San Pedro.